How can I be an authorized user if it is not on my credit report?

[lalap123]

Short story...I have a credit card from my MIL's business that she has given me to use on occasion for business purposes. I am assuming I am what would be considered an "authorized user," however, this card is NOT listed on my credit report (I just checked Experian). What does this mean? What else could this be besides an authorized user??? There are a couple of other cards listed back from when I was younger and my parents let me have one of their cards (long since closed), so why wouldn't this AMEX from my MIL be on there?

In preparation for filing, I guess my next question is, do I have to tell my MIL that I am filing or will it be seamless if they remove me as an authorized user? To be honest I never use the card, so I really don't care. But since this is American Express I am expecting they will tell her if they can....

[dingdong]

If it is biz account, AMEX biz does not report to personal CR unless you default.
Nice, huh?

[lalap123]

So in other words, my defaulting on my personal AMEX won't go to her business AMEX, only if it were to go the other way (my MIL defaults on her business AMEX and it gets reported to her personal AMEX?).

Does this mean I shouldn't worry about any negative repurcussions???

[dingdong]

Amex is weird, even though it is a biz account, it is personally guaranteed by the applicant ( There may be times when a corp has enough biz credit, that the account doesn't need a PG), but most Amex biz accounts require a PG.

The positive side to this is there is ususally a large amount of available credit and subsequently probable debt that doesn't show up in the debt to income ratio for your personal scores. It will not report on a personal CR, unless... the borrower defaults.


Regarding you defaulting on your account or including it in BK, Amex may pull you as an AU, but if remember correctly when we had a Biz Amex, the AU's were issued cards w/o the requirement of a SSN at issuance.

I don't know if that has changed.

I am not entirely sure if you defaulting on an Amex product will cause problems for your MIL. I would think that the worst that could happen is they not let you be an AU on her account anymore. But if they did that, they would have to do a little digging and figure out that you were the same person that defaulted on your Amex and at the same time were an AU on your MIL account.

I don't think they would cause problems for your MIL if her account is in good standing.

Large companies have many AU's on their corporate cards, Amex would have to close a lot of accounts these days if they punished corps/biz accounts for AU's that defaulted on an unassociated card.

I honestly can't give you a concrete answer, the answer may be buried n their terms somewhere in the card agreement.

[vaslimkat27]

It's the Creditor's Choice

I ran across a situation like this recently. What I was told is if my name was on the application only as an authorized user and not as a co-debtor the creditor does not have to report it becuase I have not liability for the applied charges. You are not responsible for the charges as an authorized user and do not have to list them in as a creditor in your BK